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Reflections

Category: Cycles and Seasons

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Advent Resources

Classes are canceled across Seattle today, my husband got the phone call at 5:00 a.m. notifying him (he teaches high school) and Seattle University posted their announcement soon after.  Apparently even though there hasn’t been much snowfall in the city, the low temperatures have made for icy and dangerous driving conditions.   Snow and below freezing temperatures are unusual around here and the city is not equipped to deal well, especially since Seattle is built on 7 hills, which makes for even more treacherous driving. Today was to be my last class session and I am sad not to have a chance to gather

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Waters of New Birth

Painting is “Waters of Baptism” by Tim Mooney Tim audited a class I co-taught while living in Berkeley.  A good friend and I received a grant from the Practicing Our Faith people to teach a class on creativity as Christian spiritual practice (you can read a summary here) in the spring of 2003.  It was a great experience, and we got to meet wonderfully creative and spiritually grounded students like Tim (a Presbyterian pastor, artist, and spiritual director) and begin exploring some of our ideas around creativity as a vital practice for church communities and ministry.  I got an email today from Tim,

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What Are You Birthing?

Advent begins next Sunday, the start of a new year in Christian calendars.  The word Advent comes from the Latin Adventus meaning coming.  It is a season of waiting with anticipation for the coming of Christ and the incarnation, God made flesh, culminating in the season of Christmas.   In Advent we are invited to be present to the tension between all of the not-yets of this world and the signs of the Kingdom we see here and now represented in Emmanuel, meaning God-with-us.  It is a tension between the promise we hope for and the glimmers of hope present at every turn.  Advent is a season

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Blessing the Bread

I just had to share two more things before I head to the airport.  I awoke early and so had time to discover a stunning post on Jen Lemen’s blog today about Love and another poem from Panhala, again by Lynn Ungar (according to Amazon her book is out of print, I think I need to make a point of finding a used copy): Blessing the Bread Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz. Surely the earth is heavy with this rhythm, the stretch and pull of bread, the folding in and folding in across the palms,

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Giving Thanks

One of the things I love about Thanksgiving is that it is one of those holidays that has escaped a lot of the consumer frenzy (except as a preamble to one of the biggest shopping days of the year).  I also love that it is a secular holiday centered on feasting and gratitude. I have so very much to be thankful for, my heart overflows with gratitude for the abundance in my life.  A wonderful husband, relatively good health, great friends, work that I love, time and space to nurture delight, many layers of community and support, all of my wonderful

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Returning

I returned yesterday from my time of retreat and remembering.  The Columbia River Gorge is stunning this time of year, I spent most of my time simply in awe of the beauty there, receiving the gifts.  I have lots bubbling and stirring in me.  Returning from retreat is always a hard transition time, especially since it is the middle of the quarter and I have quite a large pile of work waiting for me.  There were so many gifts and I will be integrating them for a while.  I will weave the threads of this small journey into the fabric of my life.  While in

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Autumnal Equinox

God’s World  O World, I cannot hold thee close enough! Thy winds, thy wide grey skies! Thy mists, that roll and rise! Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag And all but cry with colour!  That gaunt crag To crush!  To lift the lean of that black bluff! World, World, I cannot get thee close enough! Long have I known a glory in it all, But never knew I this; Here such a passion is As stretcheth me apart,—Lord, I do fear Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year; My soul is all but out of me,—let fall No

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